Opening Pandora's Box (chapter 2 up)
by Nemesi and Raptor
Summary: After the Digidestined defeated BelialVamdemon, the digital gate was closed forever. Then why are the chosen digimon in the real world? And why is the army attacking them?! What do they want from them and the chosen children? Ken, Dai... you're our last h
1. Chapter 01

Disclaimer 

**Disclaimer: Digimon, its characters, themes and ideas don't belong to us. All original characters and plots are belonged to us… or better yet, the main two original characters =are= us. *winks* **

**Rating: PG-13 – R NOT for sexual content. **

**Couples: Come on! It's Raptor and Nemesi teaming up, do you really need us to tell you what kind of fic this is? ^_^  
Nemesi's Note: Aaaah… the exquisite evilness of this fic… *sighs* are we bad authors torturing like that our poor DD? No… maybe we'll become bad in later chapters… when the real torture will begin! *chuckles* Enjoy! **

**Raptor's Note: This is my collab' with Nemesi-chan *pinches self * *ow!* Anyway, we plan to be more than evil…hope everyone enjoys reading it as much as we enjoyed writing it! Without further ado, may the torturous suspense begin! *Kaiserish laugh* **

Opening Pandora's Box 

**by Nemesi and Raptor Darkshadow **

It began in the rain. 

That's the perfect way to start this story. Picturing the heavy, merciless rain pummeling the ground with roars of sheer pleasure that lightened the darkness, it's instantly apparent that this story isn't going to be a happy one. Maybe it will, maybe it won't. Happy endings aren't so difficult to attain even in real life, after all… 

And maybe… maybe beyond all what was expecting them, they'd find an happy ending waiting for them with arms wide open. Smiling at them like the lazy, shy sunrays making a dancing pattern across the sleeping boy's room, carried by the light breeze wafting his blinds in a small, worried whisper, urging him to wake up to the pleasant-non-pleasant surprise destiny had set for him. 

The young artist slept, reclined on his desk, his pencil still held loosely in hand. Oh, he was a bright boy, a delightfully animated and carefree young man, the only darkness in him the one evident in his exterior look. The one that had magnified his honey golden skin to a darker tone, an extremely appealing burnt terra. His burgundy spikes, still unruly has ever, had always been his peculiar characteristic, something that always told him apart from the others. And the shimmering goggles lurched on top of his head were just an added mark that the boy, in total honesty, didn't need, already unique for himself. 

He may not be dark, may be the creature that lived most distant from the shadows, but Daisuke had always found them appealing. And his paintings, the accurate and yet instinctive pieces of art his hands gave birth to in no time, were all dark, mysterious, and yet had a distinct light within. Just like the author himself. 

That particular love for the Darkness of his and that strange, inexplicable excitement that had been lurking inside his stomach the whole day, had forced Daisuke Motomiya to spend the night awake, working on a painting his long time friend Hikari had asked him to give her. A painting of a beautiful female Angel, she had asked, arms spread out at her sides and golden hair dancing in an invisible wind. And despite he knew too well he wasn't really talented when it came to light and fluffy subjects he had accepted, in name of the affection that bonded them. However, he was too accustomed with paintings that reproduced starry nights and gloomy atmospheres -or at most scenes romantic and touching, but always dark- so it took him the a whole week just to just sketch it. 

The door of his room opened silently and his older sister, now fully grown into a beautiful woman, tiptoed in, looking at the artist sleeping carelessly on a chair, his head resting on his desk. She hardly subdued a giggle and walked over him as silently as she could, paying attention to not wake him, but since he went to digital world his reflexes had overdeveloped, so the redhead jumped awake, smacking his head on the bookshelf.  
"Ouch!!" He groaned, rubbing his head with far too much emphasis, and the carefree girl couldn't help but burst into a fit of loud laughter. "Yeah, yeah, *really* funny…" Daisuke whistled as he walked past his sister, heading for the kitchen with a long, tired yawn. "What's for breakfast Neesan-no-baka?" 

"Oi!" Jun replied, smacking him playfully behind his head. "Language!" The boy glared at her sideways and she waved her hands dismissively, walking past him and hurrying to the breakfast burning happily on the stove. 

"Oh, kami-sama! Jun makes breakfast?!" He slapped his hands on his face, slumping down on a chair. "And I foolishly dreamed to turn twelve!!!" 

Not even turning toward him, Jun splashed cold water to him, and his response, a little yelp and a venomous glare, fanned her laughter to a higher tone. 

"Where are mom and dad?" 

"To the mall and at work." She replied with a shrug, focusing back on the task at hand… save her precious eggs. 

"And you woke me up because?" he inquired, strolling toward the fridge to get his orange juice. 

"I'm going out. New part-time work." 

Opening the refrigerator door, Daisuke pouted, grabbing his orange juice carton which so much force that he nearly dropped it on the ground. "Geee…" he creased his lips in a frown, before busy them with the sweet fruit drink. "…you could let me sleep, ya know? It's not the first time you leave me home alone." 

Jun shrugged, too caught by her quickly burning breakfast to answer. "And let you be the only one to rest? Think again, squirt." 

"Cold-hearted." 

"Sleepy head." 

"Insensible neesan-no-baka." 

"Dumb bottomless pit." 

Daisuke frowned at this, yanking the carton away from his mouth. "I'm *not* a bottomless pit!" 

"Okay, bottomless chocolate eater is better?" 

"Sort of." 

Daisuke nodded absently, diverting his attention back to the juice carton and thoughtlessly turning the TV on. 

_::…but the habitants of Tokyo have absolutely nothing to fear: the monster has been caught, a no soldiers or innocent bystanders get hurt in the operation. For security reasons, the monster has been sedated with tranquillizer darts, and is currently chained in a specially designed cage, kept in the city Zoo, while waiting for the medical equipe to arrive…here the first images of the monsters. It resemble an armored anthropomorphic insect and…:: _

_Anthropomorphic…insect?! _Daisuke truly did *not* want to turn, but obviously his body thought otherwise, and so he found himself face to face with the images he most feared to see. 

_::…the monster was flying through the city, in the proximity of Odaiba, when a citizen saw it and promptly alerted the police…:: _

_Oh, God…_ he took one long look at the monster and started to strangle on the juice, releasing the carton from his already shacking grip and letting it crush on the ground in a poll of glimmering ginger. 

Far to be one of those sisters you would insigne with the prize "Best Sister Of The Year", but surely over-protective when it comes to her otouto-chan, Jun Motomoya whipped around, so fast it seemed she was ready to jump at something, eyes narrowed in suspicion and fists balling. When she saw his brother doubling over, coughing wildly, she somehow get reassured, and took a long look at the TV before looking down at him with her eyebrows raised in a questioningly gesture. 

"You all right?" 

Daisuke couldn't stop choking long enough to tell her, so he resolved into waving emphatically at the frowning redhead. Shacking her head resignedly, the older Motomiya jogged to her brother's side, patting almost too forcefully his thin back. Managing to stop most of his coughing only to see what the *hell* was going on, Daisuke took few deep breathes, swallowed soundly and then looked up so swiftly that almost elbowed his sister, who fell backward, with a very un-lady like yelp. 

"Squirt!!" The girl scolded, but the her voice died in her throat as she noticed his huge eyes ripple in confusion. So big, and somewhat scared… innocent and betrayed, as if the one in front of her was once again the little kid she'd hug during the dark, stormy night. 

"…everything's all right?" she asked again, more gently, resting one hand against the curve of the younger boy's spine lightly and cocking her head to take a better look to his quickly paling face. 

_::…it seems that the insect was holding something while flying, a bluish bundle whose traces has been lost since the army first tried to stop the bigger creature. Studying the tapes, the specialists questioned came to the conclusion that the bundle was nothing but another monster –considerably littler- carried by what the army is starting to consider the first of a whole horde of monsters…:: _

Feeling the blood drain from his face, Daisuke nodded, coughing. Bluish bundle…? Littler monster…? Could it be...? 

"Oh my…" 

"Daisuke…?" Jun stood in confusion, still rubbing her brother's back to get rid of a fit of coughing died long before, and Daisuke didn't move, his strangled breathing the only hint at his aliveness. Completely out of the blue, the phone rang, eliciting a loud shriek from Jun and sending the other Motomiya to rush madly down the corridor to pick it up. "KEN!!!!" He cried as soon as his ear brushed the receiver, *SURE* beyond belief it couldn't be anyone else but Ken. 

"Daisuke! Oh, Dai! Dai…did you see the news bulletin?!" 

"Yeah, but…those monsters can't be…can they?!" he bit his bottom lip, and ten knuckles turned white around the receiver. 

"Daisuke!!!" Ken cried out exasperatedly, the tremble of tears clear in his usually even voice. "How many 'armored anthropomorphic insects' do you know?!" 

"Just him, but…" 

"We have to save Stingmon! Please Daisuke! We' have to--" 

"Shh!!" Daisuke silenced his friend, snatching a hand away from the phone to wave it in front of the mouthpiece and then point the TV, as if his motion could really calm Ken down and make him avert his attention to the news. "Look at the TV! HURRY!!!!" 

The purple-haired genius frowned almost imperceptivity, and –fighting back tears- turned toward the screen once again. His eyes opened wide and he nearly dropped the receiver from which Daisuke's voice kept murmuring distantly. 

_:: …OH, WAIT! Latest updating!! The monster cage is currently being attacked from several other monsters!!! It seems they want to free their leader!!! But the policemen and the soldiers are fighting them. The images and information are few and very unclear, but it seems that the bluish creature of the previous tape is guiding a group of monster to break into the Zoo. The monster in question is a lizard-looking one, and it seems that supporting him there are an unusually huge white cat that sports –Oh my!- big yellow gloves!!! And a golden armadillo is with them, too!! It seems that there are other monsters with them, and as you can see from the images…:: _

Ken couldn't force himself to see anymore. For the distraught boy it was like seeing one of those films of the Godzilla saga, where gigantic monsters try do destroy the city and their clash with the army results in a scene with overwhelming effects that make your head spin, in a spiral of lights and noises. 

That wasn't a film, though. The 'Godzillas' were 40 cm tall at max, mean the people no harm, and –most of all- were *his* friends. Nevertheless, his head *did* spin. 

"Dai!" He shrieked, almost in tears, his wall of calmness completely crumbled down. "That proves it!! They're our Digimon!!!! We must help them!!!!!" 

"Calm down KEN!!" Daisuke yelled, grabbing the telephone in both hands. His voice had a tone of unarguable sureness, the warp and woof of anger and worry twining together in his voice. "We have to call the others and make a plan!" 

"But the soldiers could catch them, while we talk!" was the reasonable answer, formulated as a low, desperate plea. 

"And what do you think we can do?! Rush there and just say 'don't worry those monsters are friends of us' and they will let them go?! Smart, Ken, really smart!" 

"But…" Came the weak reply. 

"No 'but' and no 'if'!! We have to help them in secret, but the two of us alone can do nothing! Just call Hikari, Iori, Miyako and TK and tell them to come to my place- we'll be free to talk here. I'll try to get hold of Yamato and the older digidestined! HURRY UP!" And with that last, shrieked order, Daisuke hanged up. 

Sighing softly, the purple haired genius dropped the receiver down slowly and thoughtlessly, as if he didn't have a care in the world. He was now bent over the counter, with his palms braced against the worktop, trying to fight tears. He had to be strong… he had to… for Stingmon. Anew light igniting his eyes, Ken took the telephone with trembling fingers and began to dial the numbers as faster as he could. He knew Daisuke was right. Some far, Kaizerish corner of his self still *hated* when someone was right and he –consequentially- was wrong…he just *hated* it. But childish competition was needless at the moment, wasn't it? So, better call everyone and get over with it. 

On the other end of the line, looking with eyes that held no sight to a black phone, there was Daisuke, biting his bottom lip in worry. Not even aware of what he was doing, the boy turned around and moved back to the where his sister stood, trying not to give away how worried she was. Despite his apprehension, Daisuke couldn't move at a pace quicker than a thoughtless stroll, and so it was with immense slowness that he limped into the kitchen and kneeled down to clean up the mess he had done on the floor. He stopped though, gazing mutely at his rippled reflection in a pool of glittering orange juice. 

"Everything's all right, squirt?" Jun pressed gently, kneeling down next to him to take care of the sticky pool. Daisuke's shoulders straightened in a half-jump when she wiped away his reflection from in front of his eyes and shook his head, evading his sister's gaze. 

"Just swallowed the wrong way." He said with a shrug. Much to his relief, Jun nodded understandingly, despite the frown creasing her lips, and settled for a polite silence. 

"All right then…" Daisuke silently thanked his sister and slowly rose to his feet, moving on tired feet toward the phone. 

An outraged Matt was the first to greet him from the other end of the line. And it's unnecessary to say that the blonde didn't even give his friend time to utter a complete sentence that he was already rushing toward the door. Find and update Joe and Koushiro was just a matter of time and Sora and Mimi were just as easy to move as Matt had been. Too bad the currently strawberry-blonde keeper of the crest of Sincerity was miles across the Ocean…oh well, Daisuke just hoped she remembered it before doing something extreme and completely useless as rushing out her apartment and toward Odaiba Zoo at feet… 

Glad that he had been able to talk to everyone in few minutes, Daisuke decided to congratulate himself with the thing he needed the most at the moment: a *cold* shower. The cold –nearly icy- water washed away every trace of sleepiness and managed to wake up his mind to the immensity of the predicament they were in. 

"Great…" Daisuke mumbled, slapping his hands against his face. "Just *great*." 

The portal between the two dimension had been closed, sealed with the biggest powers known in the digital lands soon after their battle against BelialVamdemon. If that was so, how in the digiworld had they managed to pass through it and reach the real world?! And most important, why?! Was happening something that required the digidestined's help? Or was it something completely different, maybe a matter of mere nostalgia? Banging his head against the wall in a frustrated gesture, the second child of courage and friendship surrendered to his worry and slammed tight fist against the wet surface. 

"DAMN!" he would yell every time his fists connected with the wall. "Damn…" 

* * * * * 

"SQUIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIRTTTTTTTTTT!!!!!!!!!!!! I'm going to work!!" 

"Bye, Jun!!!" he replied from his bedroom. "And don't assault too much boys on the way toward the mall." 

"ARGH, just shut up, will you?!" 

"As ma'am wishes!" 

"…" 

A furious Jun opened the door, grinning her teeth so hard it seemed she was about to break them. She was worried for him and this was his gratitude?! He had dared to tease her! Dear Lord… 

Shacking her head, the brunette took the first step outside. Well, she had to admit that seeing him act as if everything was all right had calmed her down considerably… but she still wished he would open up to her. Lost in thought, Jun turned toward the stairs and saw a boy rushing toward her apartment as if chased by an horde of ravenous monsters. He came to a breathless –and brief- halt in front of her, brief enough to just wave distractedly. 

"Good…*puff puff* …morning… *pant pant* …Jun *pant* san… *swallow*" He managed, eyes red whit crying. 

"Good Morning…" She murmured, blinking owlishly at the unusual sight. He walked past her and rushed inside the house before she could ask anything about those tears, though. "Oh, wait!" she yelled, swirling around. "Daisuke isn't…" 

=SLAM= 

She was cut off by the door literally closing on her nose. "…exactly ready to receive a visit. Oh, well…" Shrugging her shoulders and shacking slowly her head, Jun jumped in the elevator and laid her back on the wall, eyes glimmering with mischief… maybe she had just found something to tease her *beloved* otouto-chan back… 

"DAISUKE!!! DAISUKE!!!" The boy cried, slamming the door behind him with a careless shove and rushing around the house. 

"DAI--" He opened the door of Daisuke's bedroom and had to rest himself against the wall to prevent himself from fainting. 

Daisuke stood, in the middle of the room, his mahogany and still wet hair falling over his face, his red-auburn eyes sparkling under the wet locks. Small drops of water ran down his face, neck and muscular bare chest. Despite the young age, Daisuke's body was strong, built up by years of soccer, and his muscles, round and hard, were the ones of a leader. In a lack of better words, we could say he was wonderful, but that would be an underestimation. 

He was more than that. 

Especially in the eyes of the now as-red-as-a-cherry boy that was fighting not to keel down. 

"Ken?" The above-mentioned beauty asked, his gorgeous eyes looking at his friend with curiosity. 

"J-Jun-san let me i-in…" The former emperor managed to babble in a single breath. He scuttled over Daisuke's bed, trying hard not to stare at the glistening wet beauty, and plopped down on the welcoming softness. Daisuke paused whatever he was doing before, and took a step toward his friend, slowly dropping the towel wrapped around his hips, making Ken hold his breath until he realized his friend had his omni-present shorts beneath. 

"Are you all right?" he asked, a note of concern tinting his voice. Sitting down on the bed, he leaned closer to his flushed friend to take a better look at his face, a concerned look playing over his own. 

Okay, *that* was a good question. Was he all right? Ken couldn't stop staring long enough to let his mind process the question. His heart was thumping wildly. He sat, completely paralyzed, his cheeks burning incredibly, his hands trembling slightly. 

_//What in the world is wrong with you?//_ He managed to think. _//Why are you acting like this? Get control of yourself!!// _

Daisuke, now starting to worry for real, if he wasn't already, hovered closer to his friend, resting his weight on his hands, pressed on the mattress between the two of them. 

"Ken?" Daisuke tried, waving an hand in front of glazed purple eyes. 

His words registered a relatively great amount of seconds later. Ken blinked quickly, titling his head up to see Daisuke frowning at him. 

"Uh? Sorry, what did you say?" Daisuke shook his head, shifting slightly so that he was now closer to Ken, their arms barely brushing. "I asked you if you were all right." 

"Y-yes! Of course I'm!" He stammered, and Daisuke looked at him sideways. It was obvious he didn't believe him, but decided not to question further, very uncharacteristic of him. 

Ken let his words linger for a few moments, before raising his head a little, looking at the other boy through his lashes. "W-well, in truth… N-no… not really… I've just seen them take away our poor digimon and…" He was about to add _'the sight of your bare body is doing insane things to me', _but he decided against it, and gnawed his lip, struggling to hold it in. 

The tan skinned boy nodded at him, fingering the goggles on top of his head. Ken lost himself in the way Daisuke moved and resumed his mute staring, marveling at the beauty of such a simple movement. 

_//Doesn't he realize how he looks? His body is *perfect*!! Eck…I could risk to say he's beautiful.// _

Okay, now where did *that* come from? What the hell was wrong with him? He'd never had those thoughts before. Less about his best friend! Ken felt his cheeks flaming and ducked his head to try and conceal his blush with a curtain of dark hair. Daisuke noticed it, anyway, and turned concerned eyes at him once again. 

"Your face is red…" Shimmering threads of affection and worry weaved through his whisper, making it soft and heavy at once. "…come here…" he cupped his pale face in his hands and placed his forehead on his, accomplishing the motion tenderly, almost soothingly. "No…it doesn't seem you're feverish…" 

Ken felt the burning sensation creep up his face and reach his ears, but kept silent, his eyes locked on Daisuke's lips. Well… after a first analysis they seemed soft… and probably warm… and sweet… of course, to be sure he had to lean forward and run some further experiments… 

The doorbell broke the moment, squeaking contentedly and unexpectedly. Completely unimpressed, Daisuke pulled away from Ken, totally clueless of the storm of emotion inside his purple-haired friend's heart. Wearing his purplish-blue shirt on, he went to the door, amethyst eyes following him all the way. A part of him relieved, another one enraged and another one highly disappointed, Ken shook his head, lowering his eyes to his hands, laying shyly on his lap. 

_//Get a hold of yourself.//_ Ken sighed inwardly. //_Get a hold of yourself. Get a hold of yourself. Get a hold of yourself.//_ He chanted this mantra to himself, hoping it could actually be of any help. The purple haired genius shook his head to banish those stranger thoughts away, and even if it took every ounce of his willpower but, concentrating on why he was there, Ken rose up on shakily legs that, miraculously, not only supported him up but also let him follow Daisuke to the door. 

_//What's wrong with you?//_ He thought again, and again he had no answer. _//Don't forget we have biggest matters to deal with here!//_ Taking a deep breath, he jogged to Daisuke's side, looking eagerly at the door. _//See? I can control my self.// _he mentally smirked, his pride somehow restored. _ //Oh… look… It seems Daisuke has something inside his back pocke--//_

Realization hitting him harder that required, Ken winced and, hardly stifling a groan, snatched his gaze away from Daisuke's…ehm… 'back pockets' to alight it on the opening door. 

_//Get a hold of yourself. Get a hold of yourself. Get a hold of yourself. Get a hold of yourself. Get a hold of yourself. Get a hold of yourself!!!// _

Looking at Ken's struggling against invisible restraints out of the corner of his eyes, Daisuke grabbed the handle and opened the door, all the time focusing on his best friend. He hadn't even time to turn around, though, that the first leader of the chosen children literally catapulted himself inside the house, and seized his successor's shoulders in a vice-like grip. 

"DAISUKE!" Taichi shouted, pinning the younger boy against a wall. "I hope you made us come here for a REASON!" He cried out, his arms shacking, eyes drowning Daisuke in an ocean of anger. "While we were chatting over the phone, they caught them! They caught them all!" 

"I knew they would…" Daisuke murmured, as if talking to himself, in a quiet, soft voice, slowly looking up at the other young man. 

"H-huh?" Taichi stammered, taken aback a little, and immediately pulled away. "Whassat mean...?" 

"And I suppose they are now somewhere inside the Zoo…" 

"Yes, in the infirmary, where they usually let the sick animals rest." Koushiro admitted in a flat voice. 

"Perfect! Almost if I had planned it!" He blurted, then jerked his gaze to the side, frowning at his own outburst, continuing in an thoughtful grumble. "Now, you remember the Zoo is just some meters far from my house, don't you?" The boy explained in another burst, his trademark grin spreading through his cheeks. Then he surveyed them all, grinning yet again, letting the silence stretch, letting that sink in for all of them. 

"R-really?!" The first child of courage let himself flop against the wall, seeming to struggle to focus on Daisuke, eyes squinting, then widening in shock, before narrowing again. 

"Yup." The other boy replied with a shrug and yet nodding almost reverently. 

"Aren't you thinking to sneak in and just free them, are you?" Jyou inquired in a slightly worried voice, fearing the answer that, however, he already knew. And he could only look on with gradually increasing worry and concern as the boy with the amber skin nodded again. 

"Of course! But we hafta wait till night comes: it will be safer for us to hide in the shadows. Koushiro!" He called, turning toward the red haired boy with gleaming eyes. "Do you have a complete plant of the city and the Zoo?" 

"Well, I'll have to download it from the net, but…" the older redhead stopped, opening his laptop in a rush, finally understanding Daisuke's intentions. "I'll find the safest and quickest way for us to get in in no time, just leave it to me." 

"Good!" He replied, snapping two fingers. Then he smiled, surveying his friends' worried looks. "Questions?" 

"One!" Miyako said, raising one hand. Everyone turned toward her and she strolled over the couch and slumped down. "Suggestions on how to spend time?" 

* * * * * 

"Tell me we're no doing this. PLEASE. Tell me this is just a dream. Tell me I'm about to wake up in my bed. PLEASE tell me…" 

"I'll tell it to you" The echo of Matt's angry grumble cut Joe's whining, "If you want me to lie. Now SHUT UP!" Satisfied with his remark, the blonde began tromping through the wood, grumbling to himself all the while as he navigated over fallen branches and through growing trees. 

"…I feared that kind of answer…" Joe sighed from the ground, waving the torch he was holding. That, until Koushiro pissed mutter brought him back to reality. 

"Joe! Light the screen of my laptop!" 

"Sorry…" With another sigh, the young man sighed again, placed the torch's light back were it was needed, running his free hand through the locks of blue that had fallen over his eyes. 

"All right." Koushiro finally conceded with a nod, after some minutes of frenetically typing on his laptop's keyboard. Immediately the digidestined crowded around him, pushing and pulling as silently as they could to peer over his shoulder to the screen of his computer. "Do you see that spot?" The redhead asked, pointing the wall that ran all around the Zoo. Everyone nodded, silently signaling him to go on "Here we can easily climb up the wall thanks to that tree." Everyone nodded again, following Koushiro's finger as it pointed at the large Sakura. "On the other side of the wall, there is the roof of a little cabin, so…" Leaving his words hanging, the child of Knowledge returned briefly to his laptop, seemingly to add some codes to a program, or words to a mail maybe, and then looked up again. "The question is, who will go?" 

Yes. The one million dollars question had been asked. The outcome of the discussion that followed was inevitable; through all the words, yells, mutters and curses, it was obvious everyone wanted to go and wasn't up to let one of his or her friends go instead of them. 

"I'm going." All conversation stopped abruptly as heads turned to look into the dark umbra of a huge tree, and from their vantage point all that was visible were two sapphire slits hanging in mid-air. "They have Gabumon. I've to go, this is a matter of Friendship, and as you know, Friendship is *my* area of specialization." 

"I'm going too!!" shouted Tai, clenching his fists, his eyes sparkling. 

"No." The blonde replied with a even, almost too collected tone. "Neither you or Daisuke can come. You're our leaders, everyone looks to you for direction. If one of you went in there first and did not come back the whole group would be demoralized and lost." Taichi grunted, crossing his arms with a rather childish pout. Daisuke lowered his eyes to his shoes, and stood there admiring his Nike for endless moments. He sighed as he suppressed his eagerness and wished for the very first time that the mantle of responsibility had been bestowed upon someone else. Finally, he looked up, meeting Yamato's searching eyes, and said, simply, 

"You're right. I'll stay." 

"I want to go, too!" Ken pleaded, jumping up on his feet, pressing his clasped hands on his chest and bowing forward slightly. "Please!" 

"No." Tai reasoned, already tasting defeat and resigned to stay, and placed a comforting hand on Ken's shoulder, noticing with a frown that he was shaking. "You're too upset to come." 

"But it's *my* digimon the one inside the cage!" He cried desperately, fearing he was about to lose Stingmon just like he had lost Wormmon not too much time before. Or like he had lost Osamu… why everyone he loved had to be tortured to a painful fate? Why was he always powerless against such cruelties? 

Tai shook his head, his other hand coming to a rest on Ken's other shoulder. "I know Ken. But remember… all of our digimon are now encaged." 

Ken looked around at the darkened faces of the digidestined. A pang of guilt ached in his heart and he looked downward, nodding slowly. 

"Good!" The ex-leader cheered, patting him proudly on his back. "Now. We've to decide who will go with Matt." He looked up at his friend as he said this, casting him an apologizing look. "We *can't* let you go in there alone, you know…" Matt offered a little nod, crossing his arms in front of his chest. In that moment, Sora stepped forward, her clear voice ringing out with emotion. 

"If this is a matter of Friendship, then it is a matter of Love too. I want to go." 

"No." Matt shook his head, lowering his eyes to the ground. "There are trained soldiers in there, and no matter how much faith I've in you, I'd rather not send you, Hikari, Miyako or Cody inside." That made sense, in a way. Hikari and Miyako were too weak, not trained to run or simply use their muscles as much as her, and Cody was simply too young and relatively too easy to catch if something went wrong. But her? What was wrong with her? 

"Why can't I come?" 

"You're emotional Sora. What would you do once you saw Biyomon? Scream her name and run to her for sure, and alert the guards is really something we do *not* need to do." 

Sora hesitated, then nodded. Matt turned, and started walking toward the wall. 

"Koushiro and his laptop are needed here," He said slowly, climbing up the lowers branches of the Sakura. "And Jyou is needed to. I rely on him to calm you down if something happens." The blonde gripped to the wall, pulling himself up with incredible ease. "Takeru, are you game?" 

"ME?!" The younger blonde shout, and the two found themselves looking into one another's eyes, blue gazes locked together. "But I thought…" Takeru licked his lips carefully, not able to bare his brother's gaze another instant. Then, after a moment, he looked slightly up, blue eyes searching out identical blue eyes, something simple, profound and subtle passing between them. "I'm coming." 

Jumping down the wall and into the protection of the thick shadows of the Zoo, the two brothers began tiptoeing carefully on the empty ways. From the large, cold cages the various animals, from the most exotic one to the more common, from the most dangerous to the most docile, were looking at them, their big, watery eyes full of curiosity and fear. Something strange waved in the air and they could feel it, at some deeper level they could barely understand. 

Matt was moving quickly but silently in the shadows, as he was one of them. But Takeru couldn't stop his gaze to wander around, and this slowed him down considerably. Looking at the cages, he couldn't help but swallow hard. That strange, creepy air of that place unnerved him, making him suspicious, tensed, barely able to focus on his mission. His heart was thumping faster than a jackhammer, out of fear. He was thinking about Patamon, entrapped on one of this cages, maybe screaming his name in pain. 

T.K. shook his head with force, maybe hoping that could move that thoughts away from his mind. But he failed, and Patamon's image still wavered in front of his mental eyes. Noticing his strange behavior, Matt lurked closer to him, kneeling noiselessly at his side. 

"You all right? Are you scared?" 

"No, I'm not scared…" T.K. replied without even thinking. "At least not for me, but for them." 

A small smile tugged the corners of his lips upward and he suppressed a soft chuckle. "Yeah, me too…" 

And that was all he said before disappearing again in the shadows around them. 

"MATT!!" T.K. called, trying the best he could to follow his older brother. But Matt had already snaked under the infirmary window. T.K. reached as quickly as he could manage, and yet paying attention to do as less noise as possible. 

"Matt what__?" 

"Shh!" Matt silenced his little brother, quickly moving a hand in front of him. "We're not alone." And with that Matt pointed trough the window the soldier who was inside. 

"Wonderful…" T.K. grumbled, rolling emphatically his eyes. Just wonderful. 

* * * * * 

He fought his way up out of the warm blanket of foggy sleep that held him, tempting him to sink back into the blissful, dreamless sleep he was slowly coming out of. It felt like there was a weight tied around his neck, holding him down, almost forcing him to sleep, but he had a nagging feeling that he shouldn't sleep. Couldn't sleep. 

Now what was the reason. 

He concentrated, thinking hard, trying to make sense out of the haze, finally coming up with an image. A familiar, comforting image. An image of a smiling boy with blue-black hair, and shining amethyst eyes. He struggled to put a name to the face, but it was hard…so hard. 

He smiled to himself as he remembered that which should be second nature, coming without having to be summoned. The boy's name was Ken. Ichijouji Ken, his partner, his Digidestined. 

Having figured that out, he knew why he couldn't sleep. He had to see Ken, that was why he had come. But why wasn't he with Ken? What had happened? 

As he came more and more awake, and the fog that clouded his mind moved further and further away-never leaving completely, but receding-another question presented itself; _why can't I move? _

He opened his eyes-or would have if he had had eyelids, it was more like he came fully aware of his surroundings-and shook his head to clear out the last of the fuzziness. Then his questions were answered. 

He had been captured by what Ken would have called the Military, and he was being held captive. That explained why he wasn't with Ken. He also found out the answer to why he couldn't move. He was in a large cage of some kind, and his arms and legs were chained to strange looking arms that extended from the bars, holding him spread-eagle, and a large ring of metal was clamped around his chest, immobilizing his wings. 

He took stock of himself. Aside from being unable to move, there were two sore spots on his back, and he remembered feeling short, sharp pains from those areas as he was flying, and then a spreading numbness, and he remembered everything going dark. He also felt weak. But it wasn't the kind of weak that he expected, and it didn't seem related to the tranquilizer darts that had hit him. it was deeper than that, making him feel like he was made of lead, drained. 

"Stingmon…" 

Stingmon turned to look at the source of the voice calling his name, knowing who it was without seeing him. He looked over and down, at a smaller cage on the floor, where Veemon was held in much the same position the large insect was, limbs spread eagle on a strange frame. 

Veemon's eyes were only half open, and he smiled when he saw the larger Digimon was awake. Stingmon noticed a small swollen red area on his friend's blue thigh, midway between the knee and hip, probably where he had been hit by a dart. 

"Are you all right?" Stingmon asked. 

Veemon nodded weakly, "We have to get out of here," he whispered, "Get to the others," He strained until he was stretching his nearest hand as far as the frame would allow, reaching between the bars of his cage to Stingmon, "Stingmon." 

Stingmon struggled against his bonds, trying to free himself enough to help his friend, but with the deep weakness he felt at the moment, he could do nothing against the unyielding metal. And struggling only served to make him feel weaker and weaker. Veemon saw Stingmon trying, and forced his shaking hand out farther, repeating over and over again, "Stingmon…Stingmon…" 

Stingmon suddenly felt too tired and drained to continue, and slumped within the frame that held him. He felt a great tension somewhere inside relax, and a spreading warmth. When he opened his eyes, the cage around him looked much bigger. He shook his head to clear it, feeling a little better now that his arms and legs were no longer restrained, and was surprised to see that he had reverted to Wormmon. He didn't know why he would have, he had been told that he had more than enough energy to stay as Stingmon for several days, more than enough time to meet up with Ken and the others. But his Digivolution had only lasted a few hours-unless he had been out for longer than he thought. He resolved to think more about it later. The first order of business was getting out of the cage and helping Veemon. 

Wormmon crawled over to the bars, and squeezed through them, it was a tight fit. When he was wriggling through, he thought he heard a hum coming from the bars, and a feeling of drained weakness wherever the bars touched him, but he was at a loss to explain it. 

Once out of the cage, he paused on the cold cement floor to catch his breath-why was he feeling so helpless all of a sudden? He looked over at Veemon, still stretching his hand between the bars to him, body trembling violently now, "Wormmon….help…" 

Wormmon shuffled across the floor, coming up to Veemon's hand, "Hold on Veemon! I'll get you out," he whispered, looking at the lock on the cage, "I'll get you out of there," he rested his claw on the bar, and jerked it back as soon as it touched the cold metal. It felt like the metal was pulling all the strength out of him. 

His eyes widened as he made a connection; the metal made him feel weaker, and he had heard a hum when his head had gone between the bars. There had to be a field or an energy barrier of some kind around the bars that made them suck the energy right out of Digimon. And Veemon was reaching his hand right into that field! 

"Relax Veemon," Wormmon whispered, "Save your strength, we'll need it to escape!" 

Veemon nodded weakly and let his body collapse upon itself, held up only by the restraining frame, eyes closed, breathing shallow, but regular. 

Before he could try anything, Wormmon had to find the power switch so he could turn off the field. He looked around the room, finally noticing his surroundings. They were in a hospital of some kind, like an infirmary. It was dark, the lights off, the only light coming through the windows from the moon. 

Arranged around the room, on the floor, on tables and counters, were small cages holding other Digimon-and they were all Digimon he knew! Agumon, Gabumon, Biyomon, Palmon, Tentomon, Gomamon, Patamon, Gatomon, Hawkmon, and Armadillomon, all there and all unconscious. 

Agumon, Gabumon, Biyomon, Palmon, Tentomon, Gatomon and Hawkmon, all restrained spread eagle on those frames, the others had different arrangements. Gomamon had a wide metal bend clamped around his body, pinning his forelegs to his sides, and wires stretched from different looking frames to the band to keep him from moving, a gagging muzzle in his mouth so he couldn't speak if he awoke. Patamon was lying on his stomach, all four legs manacled and chained to special frames, a thick band around his body so he couldn't form a Boom Bubble. Armadillomon was lying on his side, all four legs chained together, hogtied in his cage, chains holding him in place. Palmon had what looked like metal mittens on, so she wouldn't have been able to use her Poison Ivy. Agumon, Gabumon, Gatomon, and Armadillomon were wearing muzzles that would make it impossible to open their mouths, and Biyomon and Hawkmon's beaks had rings of leather cinched tightly around them, with straps wrapping around their heads to hold them in place so they couldn't open their beaks to snap at anything. They all showed the raised red bumps caused by the tranquilizer darts 

Wormmon shuddered-it was like whoever had done this had known what to expect, and had known they were coming. 

It wasn't a feeling he liked. 

Shaking himself, he looked around the room, tearing his eyes away from the other Digimon and looking for the power switch. He noticed a cable running from a port in the back of the cage running along the floor, soon joined by a second, then a third, until the cables from all twelve cages snaked across the floor together and connected to a box on the floor near the door with ports for the twelve cables and a switch for each. He followed the cable from Veemon's cage until it connected to the box, and flicked the appropriate switch. The light next to the switch changed from red to green, showing it was ready to be turned on again. 

The lock had looked electronic, requiring a keycard to open. But since Wormmon didn't have a keycard, he would have to find another way. He sat near the box, thinking. _Anything electronic required power to work_, he reasoned, _so if I can cut the power, the lock should deactivate_. He grabbed the cable coming from the box, and pulled on it with a grunt. For a long minute, it refused to move, even though Wormmon was putting everything he had into pulling it out. It shouldn't have been a problem, but after being drained by the bars, he wasn't up to full strength. The cable finally popped out of the port with a snap, and the lock on the door of the cage and the clamps around Veemon's limbs clicked open, Veemon sliding a little lower, but still held up by the half-open restraints. 

Wormmon ran over as fast as he could, and pushed the door all the way open. He pried the restraints all the way open, and Veemon collapsed on Wormmon's back with a grunt. 

"Veemon!" Wormmon whispered urgently, "Veemon, are you all right?" 

For a minute, Wormmon was afraid that the blue dragon had been drained to a point where he had fallen asleep. 

Much to Wormmon's relief, the dragon stirred, "I'm okay now," he whispered, "Thank you Wormmon." 

Wormmon looked around at the other Digimon in the room with them, deeply sedated and restrained by all manner of cruel devices, and looked away. It hurt to see them like this. But there wasn't anything he could do about it. It was all he could do to fight against the fatigue caused by both the darts and the field, and he didn't know if he would be able to get Veemon out-and he was awake-much less any sleeping Digimon they would have to drag after them. 

"Veemon, we have to get out of here!" 

Veemon shook his head, legs still too weak to support him, leaning on Wormmon for support, "We can't leave…" 

"We can't bring them with us when they, and we're, like this. We have to find the Digidestined, and bring them back to help them!" 

Veemon didn't want to listen to the logic of the situation, almost refusing to leave, even though he couldn't do anything on his own, "Veemon," Wormmon whispered, "It's the only way." 

Veemon nodded, "You're right. We'll find them and bring them back." 

Wormmon half supported, half dragged Veemon over to a large intake vent for the air conditioner near the floor, and after a little work, managed to pull it from the wall. He got the dragon in first, then pulled himself over the lip and into the duct. He then reached down to the floor and pulled the grate back into place. Then he helped Veemon to his feet and started down the duct. 

* * * * * 

Yamato and Takeru crept silently through the halls, Takeru still grappling with his own fears of Patamon screaming in a cage. 

The soldier that they had been watching had been on his break, drinking a Styrofoam cup of coffee as he waited for a shift change. When he had left, they had slipped in through the window, Yamato warning his younger brother to be even more careful than they had at first discussed. They would probably see more guards before they found the Digimon. 

They moved through the halls of the infirmary for what seemed like forever, until Takeru started to wonder just how big the building was-it hadn't looked this big on the outside. They would have preferred to keep to the shadows, if there had been any, but all the lights were on-no shelter from the light anywhere. 

There was nowhere to hide. 

They had seen only a few guards, all soldiers, but they had been able to wait until they turned their backs and slipped past them, always moving deeper and deeper into the infirmary. 

But they still didn't know where the Digimon were being held. 

They paused before a corridor, and Yamato looked to check, "Okay, the coast is clear, let's go!" 

They started down the corridor, and were about half way to the next intersection when they heard a footstep behind them, "Halt!" 

They froze. 

_Busted,_ Takeru thought glumly. 

"Who are you and why are you here?" They turned to look at the soldier that was questioning them, "Keep your hands where I can see them!" 

The brothers turned around slowly, keeping their arms out to their sides. When they were facing the soldier, he looked at them, then lowered his gun, _They're just children, _he thought, "What are you doing here?" he asked, "This is a restricted area!" 

Yamato laughed and scratched the back of his head, "I'm sorry sir, we just wanted to see the monsters you caught today!" 

Takeru stared at his brother-then jerked his head back to the soldier, "Yeah, but, um, I guess we got lost." 

The soldier looked at them, then motioned them forward, "Start walking." 

_Great_, Takeru thought, _even with my brother's acting, we're still up the creek without a paddle!_ He looked over at Yamato, _Ham._

They turned a corner, and were faced with a checkpoint or something. They stopped in front of a small group of soldiers and waited. 

"Ikari," the soldier behind them started, "These kids snuck in to see the monsters. Escort them to the exit." 

Ikari saluted, "Hai!" He turned to the brothers, "Follow me." 

Takeru breathed a sigh of relief. They were going to get out, and possibly get another chance. There was nothing to worry about. 

As soon as they were around a corner, the soldier that had caught them placed a hand to his ear to press the earpiece in as he activated his radio, "Lt. Ido to Command Center, come in Command Center, over," he spoke into the mic connected to the ear piece. 

"This is Katsuhiro. Go ahead." 

"Katsuhiro-san, You said you wanted to know if anything out of the ordinary happened, and I just intercepted two kids walking around the infirmary, and have sent them out with Sgt. Ikari." 

There was a pause, "Two kids?" 

"Hai!" 

"What kind. Describe them." Was it Ido's imagination, or was there a note of urgency in his voice? 

"Two males, looked to be brothers, approximately 17 and 12, 175 and 160 cm respectively, both had blonde hair and blue eyes." 

"What did they say they were here for?" 

"They said they wanted to see the monsters sir." 

A short pause, then an undisguised urgency, "Where are they now?" 

"Sgt. Ikari is escorting them to the exit now sir." 

"Baka!" Ido winced at the loud sharp rebuke, "They might be two of the children we're looking for! Bring them to me at once!" 

Ido came to attention, even though he knew Katsuhiro couldn't see him, "Hai! Right away!" 

He turned off his radio and turned to the three soldiers left at the checkpoint, "Suzehara! Nagisa! Come with me!" 

"Hai!" They saluted and turned to follow him. 

It was all Takeru could do not to sigh with relief as the exit came in sight. They were going to get out of here, and then they were going to try again. But he knew that if they were caught a second time, they wouldn't be able to get out of it. 

Ten meters from the door, there was a voice behind them, "Halt!" 

They turned to see three soldiers with drawn guns approaching. Ikari drew his own and pointed it at them, wondering why the Lieutenant was coming with weapons out and pointing at the kids. 

Ido stopped in front of them and motioned for the other soldiers to surround them, "Start walking." 

All Takeru could think was, _Déjà vu…. _

Before long, Takeru and Yamato were standing before a desk near the center of the building. On the other side of the desk was a man that made Yamato uncomfortable. 

That was one reason not to trust him. No one made him uncomfortable. 

If he had been standing he looked like he would stand over two meters tall, towering over everyone in the room, he had dark hair, short and combed immaculately. He wore a strange gray and black uniform under a black leather trench coat that had a decidedly military cut. But he didn't seem to be part of the military. 

And neither did the people they had passed coming here. They had walked through several large rooms that had once been interconnected offices, but had been converted into a command center, complete with computer terminals, internet connection, satellite uplink, and several things that the boys couldn't identify. 

Then they had been brought here. 

The man smiled, it reminded Yamato of a shark just before feeding, "Good evening boys. Comfortable?" 

"Not really," Yamato said, Takeru remained silent, resigning himself to the fact they were probably about to get arrested. 

The smile didn't falter, "Can I get you anything? Tea? Cookies?" 

"No thank you," Yamato started, "We'd like to go home now." 

"Of course, of course," the man chuckled, "But first tell me, why did you come here?" 

Yamato decided that he better keep playing the game, no sense changing the story now and making them any more suspicious than they already were, "We just wanted to see the monsters that you caught today, but we got lost….." 

A lone soldier made his rounds through the zoo's infirmary, walking slowly down the brightly lit corridors, looking for anything suspicious. Not that there would be anything. He had heard about the boys, but that had been on the other side of the building, so he didn't even see them. Not that it really mattered, even if he had been the one to catch them, it would still be boring. It was so hard to find exciting things these days. 

But he had to force these thoughts aside as he came to the door that led to the caged monsters. He turned on his radio, and told them he was going in, leaving his radio on as he had been instructed. He opened the door, and looked around. Didn't seem to be anything wrong here. He was about to close the door and walk away when his eyes fell on the junction box lying on the floor. Where eleven of the lights were red, and one was green. He reported it in, asking what it meant. The answer came shortly-apparently someone had to check a manual or something, and told him that a green light meant power to that cage had been turned off, but was ready to be turned on again. 

He was then instructed to turn the power for that cage back on immediately. He started walking through the room toward the box, and tripped over one of the cords snaking across the floor. Cursing, he stood and carefully walked back to the door and turned on the lights. He then walked over and stood looking down at the box. 

He knelt down and looked at the box. 

"That's funny," he stated, "Not only is the power turned off, but the cable was disconnected." 

Not waiting for an answer, he reached the few inches over the box and grabbed the disconnected cable, then, curious as to which cage it lead to, followed the black cord as it meandered across the floor and connected to a cage. A cage with the door open. An empty cage. He then looked to the left, and saw the large cage, also empty. 

He stood up and stumbled back a few steps. 

This wasn't happening. That huge insect and another monster were loose in the zoo? 

He ran out and slammed the door behind him, leaning on it for support. Then he spoke into the mic hanging in front of his face, "Control Center, come in please." 

"Control Center here, what is the status of the creatures?" 

He placed a hand over his heart, checking the corridor to make sure the monsters weren't waiting to jump out and grab him, "Control," he swallowed, "You're not going to believe this…" 

A soldier standing behind the man suddenly placed a hand to his ear, nodded, muttered into the microphone, then leaned over and whispered in the man's ear. The man's smile faltered, then fell, and he turned to look at the soldier. The soldier drew back against the wall and stood stiffly at attention. Looking for all the world like he wanted the man to look somewhere else. When he turned back, he was smiling again, "If you'll excuse me for a moment, there's some urgent business that I have to attend to. I'll be right back." 

He left the room followed by the soldier. Yamato had been right. He was over two meters tall, almost a head taller than the soldier that followed him. 

With him gone and three soldiers in the room, thee was nothing he and Takeru could do but sit, and wait, and hope that he bought their story. 

Katsuhiro took the offered headset from the communications technician, "Katsuhiro here." 

"Katsuhiro-san!" a voice drifter across the line, "Two of the creatures are missing!" 

"Missing? Define missing." 

"The cages are empty sir! They're not there!" 

"Calm down. Which two?" 

"The big one-the giant insect, and the little blue one he was carrying!" 

"And you're sure they're not there?" 

"Hai! I checked the room as I was assigned, and they're not in the cages anymore!" 

"Very well," Katsuhiro sighed, "Assemble a team and begin searching the entire building room by room, and send some one into the ducts. They were loaded up with drugs, so they can't have gone far. If they aren't in the building, widen the search to the entire zoo. If they still don't turn up, I want you to search the entire city!" 

"Hai! I'll get right on it sir!" 

Katsuhiro handed the headset back and turned to walk back to his office, a plan forming in his head. He turned to the soldier next to him, "Sergeant, get three men to help you get the two empty cages out of the containment room. Go now. I want it done in five minutes-and make sure the creatures are still sedated!" 

The soldier saluted, "Hai!" then turned and ran for the door, picking up others as he ran. 

Katsuhiro stuck his head into a side office, now crammed with every kind of video and viewing equipment, all state of the art, all very expensive. He leaned over a technician's shoulder, looking through the camera pointed at the office he had claimed, seeing it through the eye of the camera by way of a color monitor. He was focused on the taller, older boy, "Do we have an ID yet?" he asked. 

The technician sighed, "We don't have a name, but yes, we have pictures." 

He flicked a switch, and a wall made entirely of screens came to life, each with their own still image. 

The first was the boy standing on the shoulder of a large white monster, a shorter, as yet unidentified brown haired boy on the other shoulder. 

The second was the boy, sitting astride a large, armored wolf, covered from nose to tail, ears to paws in multi-colored, shining metal. 

The third, a light blue werewolf with dark blue stripes standing next to the boy. 

The forth, a jungle setting where the boy looked like he was talking to a large, light blue wolf with dark blue striped in it's pelt. 

The fifth, the boy looked like he was talking to the creature through a floating screen as it floated in nothingness shortly before it became the metal-clad monster. This monster was small, yellow skinned, with a pelt thrown over its back and face, light blue with dark blue stripes. 

Katsuhiro smiled, this one he knew. He knew it because he had trapped it today. So this was the monster that the boy wanted to see. 

The rest of the screens showed various views of other times they had been able to get images, and a couple ran video images they had captured. 

Katsuhiro patted the technician's shoulder, "Good! Good! Keep up the good work!" 

He walked out of the office, already formulating a plan of action. 

As he was walking toward his office, one of the soldiers following his spoke, "Katsuhiro-san, what are we going to do with them?" 

Katsuhiro looked over his shoulder at the young soldier, "They came to see the monsters," he started, "I think they should get their chance!" 

Katsuhiro stepped back into his office, sat down slowly in his chair and looked across the desk at the two uncomfortable boys. 

He spent two more minutes making small talk, then set his plan into action, "So you came to see the monsters?" he asked. 

Yamato smiled and nodded, "Yes sir!" Then he stopped smiling, "But we understand that we can't and have to go home before our parents start to worry"-including their parents had been a stroke of genius in his mind, saying that they would be missed and he had better let them go without really saying it. 

The man's smile widened as he stood, "Follow me." 

Yamato and Takeru stood slowly, "Where are we going?" Takeru asked quietly. 

The man looked over his shoulder at them, still smiling his hungry-shark smile, "I'm going to personally escort you to the door." 

* * * * * 

They walked through unfamiliar corridors, the large man in front, six soldiers behind. They paused in front of a door, and the man opened it, the boys could see little but that it was dark inside. "Why are we stopping?" Yamato asked. 

The man shrugged, "Just a little side trip, nothing more," he stepped through the door, disappearing into darkness, "Please, come in." 

They stepped into the room, followed by the soldiers. They could almost make out a window, but it looked like the curtains had been drawn, plunging the room into absolute darkness. 

When he was sure the boys were in, with no avenue for escape, Katsuhiro turned on the lights, noting with satisfaction that the empty cages had been removed as soon as he turned on the light. 

He watched as they saw the creatures, saw their Digimon restrained in cages, totally helpless and at his mercy. They tried to be strong, not showing what they felt, but that resolve didn't stand a chance when they were faced with their Digimon, sedated, chained, and in cages right in front of them. It tore their hearts to see their friends like this, bringing the realization home that they really had been captured, and hurting more than anything they had ever felt before. 

Yamato steeled himself. This man was good. Showing them this, hoping to get a rise out of them. He probably knew who they were-this little trip proved it, but he still wasn't about to give him the satisfaction. 

Takeru gasped when he saw Patamon, tears springing to his eyes as he saw his best friend shut in a cruel cage, strapped down in such a way that he couldn't move, even if he had been awake to do so. He stepped forward, one shaky foot in front of the other. 

He reached for the cage with shaking fingers, "P-Patamon?" 

Yamato looked at his brother, then tried to grab him to stop him, but Takeru shrugged him off. The Takeru started walking, then running right for Patamon's cage. 

"Takeru, no!" But he didn't listen. 

Takeru slid to a stop in front of the small cage and knelt in front of it, reaching through the bars to stroke Patamon's soft fur, "Patamon….wake up! It's me! Please wake up! Patamon!" 

A soldier came over and cuffed him. He didn't resist, just knelt there staring numbly at the still form of Patamon. 

Katsuhiro walked around behind the cages, coming to stand between Agumon and Gabumon's cages. He smiled as Yamato was cuffed, his hands held together at the wrist in front of him, "And now which one is yours?" he asked quietly, "Let me think," he patted the top of Agumon's cage, "Is it this one?" he shook his head, "No, I don't think so," he turned to Gabumon's cage, "I think it's this one!" he kicked the side of the cage violently, knocking the unconscious Digimon around as the cage tilted then fell back into position. Yamato winced as he watched Gabumon's limp form tossed against the restraint frame like a rag doll. 

The shaking brought Gabumon out of his drug-induced coma, at least partway, and he opened his eyes about halfway, fighting for even that much. His sleepy red eyes found his human partner, and he tried to speak through the muzzle-which he couldn't feel, "Hymmmaduo…" That was as close as he could get to his name. Then his eyes closed and his head lolled forward again as he lost the battle with the tranquilizers flowing through his system. 

Yamato snarled at the man, no one did that to his friends! Especially not to Gabumon! No one! 

The man turned to him, ignoring the enraged look, "Now, tell me, Where are your friends?" 

"Oni!" he snarled, looking to all the world as feral as any wolf, Digimon or otherwise. 

The man shrugged, "Suit yourself. We'll do this the hard way," he turned to a soldier, "Take them to the chopper, and bring their monsters too, but tell the pilot to wait before he returns to base. We might have a few more visitors tonight." 

The soldier saluted, "Hai!" 

The brothers were led out of the room, followed by soldiers bearing the cages with their sleeping Digimon inside. 

* * * * * 

Taichi checked his watch for the umpteenth time that night, wondering what was taking so long. He waited a few more minutes, checking his watch every thirty seconds or so, then cursed under his breath. Yamato and Takeru had been gone for exactly three hours. 

"It's been too long," he whispered loud enough for the rest to hear, "Something must have gone wrong!" 

"How do you know?" Jyou asked, worried about the response. 

"Because it shouldn't take three hours to find the Digimon and get back here!" Taichi hissed between his teeth. 

"So what do we do?" Ken asked quietly, trembling, trying not to look at the way the light from the streetlamps made Daisuke's tanned skin glow in the night. 

"We go to Plan-B!" Taichi stated grimly. 

Koushiro looked up from his laptop eyes wide, "We have a Plan-B?" 

"Yeah," Taichi smiled, "We all go in, split up, and see if any of us can find the Digimon!" 

"Great…" Jyou muttered, "I was afraid something like this would happen…" 

"Great!" Daisuke enthused, glad that something exciting was finally going to happen, and in the process free the Digimon to boot! "Who's my partner?" he asked. 

Taichi shook his head, "You're not going Daisuke." 

"What!?!" Daisuke whined, "But Veemon is in there too!" 

Taichi turned away from looking at the wall surrounding the zoo to look at the irate Keeper of Courage and Friendship, pulled him aside, and whispered so the others wouldn't hear him, "Ken doesn't look so good right now," he stated, "He's not ready to do this, and someone needs to stay here with him." 

Daisuke nodded, his whole face saying, Oh….I understand now. 

Taichi smiled and placed a hand on the younger boy's head, "Don't worry, we'll get the Digimon out safely." 

Daisuke nodded again, "Right," then went over to sit by Ken. He threw his arm over the blue-nette's shoulders and leaned on him a little, "Don't worry Ken," he whispered, "They'll be back with the Digimon in no time at all! Then we can all go home!" 

Ken nodded, not trusting himself to speak when Daisuke was so _close //Does he have to do that?// _Ken thought, hoping Daisuke would interpret the way he was trembling for the chill of the night. 

Koushiro outlined the way they would get into the zoo, then into the infirmary on his laptop for the Digidestined, then turned it off and handed it to Ken, "Hold on to that for me till I get back, okay?" 

Ken nodded mutely, holding the computer bag by the strap as he watched everyone else make their way to the wall. 

Taichi checked his watch, "We'll meet back here in an hour," he whispered, "If no one's found the Digimon, Yamato and Takeru by then, we'll go back in, got it?" 

Everyone around him nodded their agreement. 

Taichi took hold of a low branch of the tree they would use to cross the wall, "Okay," he stated, "Here we go!" 

Ken and Dai watched as the rest of the Digidestined went over the wall one at a time, the older group lowering Miyako and Iori to the ground on the other side of the wall first.

With a sigh, the two boys set themselves to wait. 

Forty-five minutes later, Taichi and Hikari were brought into the belly of the large helicopter, soldiers in front and behind, hands cuffed before them. They were led to, and pushed into seats next to Yamato and Takeru. They could also see Koushiro, Jyou, Iori, Miyako, and Sora, all cuffed, all strapped into the seats with them, and the Digimon in their cages being brought in one by one. 

Takeru forced a smile, "Looks like the gang's all here," he said mirthlessly. 

They all sat, hanging their heads in defeat. 

Hikari was the only one to look up, out the open hatch of the large helicopter, and think _//Daisuke, Ken, you're our only hope now. Please don't fail…// _

Dai Checked his watch, wondering what was taking so long. The rest of the Digidestined had been gone for over an hour now, and they still hadn't come back. The usually carefree boy was beginning to worry. 

He looked up as he heard a metallic crash nearby. He swallowed, shrinking farther into the shadows, hoping whatever it was wouldn't find him. 

Ken, who had closed his eyes for a moment, started, lifting his head off Daisuke's shoulder where it had been resting, and looked around, "What was that?" he whispered. 

Dai shook his head, "I don't know." 

Wormmon winced at the sound the grate made as if fell off the wall when he pushed it. He stuck his head out and looked right and left, hoping no one was around to see or hear it. Satisfied that the coast was clear, he ducked back into the duct and skittered back to where he had left Veemon, yawning as he did so, body still feeling like it was ninety percent asleep and sluggish. 

Veemon was leaning against the wall of the duct and had slid down onto his tail, his red-brown eyes almost closed and watery, "Wan' sleep Worm'on…Can' go eny furdder…" 

"Yes you can Veemon," Wormmon encouraged, tilting the dragon so he was standing and leaning on him again, "Just a little farther and we'll be out of here! Then we can find Ken, Daisuke, and the others and get the rest out too!" 

Veemon shook his head and rubbed one eye with a blue fist, "righ'….Gotta help the udders…" he yawned, "But so sl'py…" 

Wormmon forced his eyes open as he half supported-half dragged Veemon out with him. He dropped out of the duct to the ground, Veemon landing on top of him in a tangle of blue and green limbs. Wormmon felt his eyes close and his antennae droop…it would be so easy to just fall asleep right here…they could keep going in the morning…where was the harm in a few hours sleep…Veemon needed it even more than he did…and he couldn't fight the feeling that falling asleep next to Veemon just felt so right… 

He shook himself awake, forcing his eyes to focus together-they seemed to want to focus independently, one near one far-and get Veemon standing again. They couldn't sleep…not here…if they fell asleep now, they would be caught, and this time they wouldn't be able to escape. 

Wormmon started walking along the wall, feeling that he was headed in the right direction. For what he didn't know, but for whatever reason, he was sure he was heading the right way. 

Daisuke and Ken sat in the shadows for long minutes, barely daring to breathe as they waited to be discovered. 

After a few minutes, Daisuke sighed and smiled, putting on a happy face, "See Ken? It was nothing! We shouldn't have worried!" 

Ken smiled slightly, feeling his face color slightly as Daisuke tried to cheer him up, hoping that the blush wouldn't be obvious in the dim light, _//Does he have to look at me like THAT?// _he asked himself_, //Does he know the effect he has on people?// _

They both jumped when they heard the high-pitched howl that could only be one thing-a helicopter engine starting. They crouched low again, trying to disappear as they watched the huge double-rotored helicopter lift out of the zoo from the plaza where it had landed that afternoon and angle off to the west. 

Ken watched the blinking running lights of the Chinook fade into the distance, the sound of the rotors slicing through the air diminishing and disappearing with increased distance. 

"I wonder what that was all about," Ken stated. 

"Oh! Shoot!" said a female voice to his right, "They've already gone and gotten themselves captured! That's no fun!" 

"Yes," said a deeper male voice on the same side, right next to the female voice, "This complicates matters a little, but I'm sure we have nothing to worry about." 

Ken and Dai turned as one to see who the voices belonged to. Ken felt his jaw drop, and Daisuke just stared. Sitting not ten centimeters from them was a girl, who looked to be about their age, perhaps a little older, wearing a strange clown-like outfit, wearing a three pointed hat whose belled points hung almost to the ground. 

Crouching next to her, on legs with three joints, was a blue dragon, undeniably a Digimon, blue skinned with black stripe-like markings and a pure white chest and belly, wearing a pair of blue jeans, a black leather belt, and a broad short sword strapped to his waist. 

It was obvious that they were talking about the Digidestined that had gone in, even more obvious that they knew who the two boys next to them were, and totally obvious that they had meant to find them no matter how well they might have hid. 

"W-What are you talking about?" Ken asked, staring as the girl looked at him with a frown-even though it looked like she smiled all the time, and should even be smiling now. 

She turned back to look at him, "Your friends, the Digidestined, and their Digimon are on that helicopter." 

Daisuke jumped to his feet, "You're kidding!" he almost yelled, "We have to go help them!" 

Suddenly the blue Digimon was standing behind him, a large warm hand on the boy's shoulder, "There is nothing you can do to help them now," he stated quietly, his voice carrying the tones of command, and sounding like he knew what he was talking about. 

"Let me go!" Dai tried unsuccessfully to shrug the hand off his shoulder, "I have to help them!" 

"You can't help them," the dragon said quietly, trying to show the boy the truth in his words, "Not now." 

"I don't care!" Daisuke spun around so he was facing the taller Digimon, looking up into his eyes, "They're my friends!" 

"I know," the Digimon crouched down until he was eye-to-eye with the boy, "But you can't help them if you get yourself captured as well." 

"Don'tcha worry," The clown girl smiled, her face popping up from behind the dragon's strong shoulders. "There will be another time." 

Daisuke sighed and sat back down, "You're right…I guess." 

Ken suddenly jumped up and pointed toward the wall, "Wormmon!" 

All heads turned to look in the direction he was pointing. 

Daisuke jumped to his feet and immediately started running toward the Digimon, "Veemon! You're all right!" 

Veemon looked at him, smiled sleepily, "H'llo D'suke…" he looked past the boys at the two figures behind them and raised the hand not on Wormmon's back for support into the air to wave, "H'llo guysh! Wha' 're you…" then collapsed to the ground, chest rising and falling as his breathing became deep and regular, a small puddle of drool quickly forming.

Wormmon looked over at Ken as the boy ran over and smiled…it was all right to sleep now, "Ken-san…" he felt his body quit, and gave himself willingly into the sweet arms of sleep-he would be safe as long as he was with Ken. He too collapsed, sleeping before he hit the ground, One of Veemon's arms thrown over his segmented body. 

Ken knew they were both still full of the drugs that had originally sedated them, plus something given to them after they were captured to keep them asleep. In their present state, he was amazed that they had made it as far as they did. 

Ken and Daisuke reached the sleeping Digimon at the same time, prying their arms from around the other with a little difficulty. Ken hugged the sleeping insect to his chest and cried. 

Daisuke hugged the limp form of Veemon tightly to his chest and sobbed, "It's all right now Veemon, you're safe now," whispering in the comatose dragon's ear as said dragon started to drool on his shoulder. 

Ken spared a teary look at the two figures who had appeared seemingly out of nowhere by their side, wondering who they were, and why their Digimon seemed to know them. 

**~*~ End of chapter 01~*~ **


	2. Chapter 02

**Disclaimer: Digimon, its characters, themes and ideas don't belong to us. All original characters and the plot are belonged to us… or better yet, the main two original characters =are= us. *winks* **

**Rating: PG-13 - R NOT for sexual content. **

**Couples: Kensuke *Insert confetti, OJ and Herbal Essence here* **

**Nemesi's Note: *chants* Torture-torture… **

**Raptor's Note: Looks like things are really going to start moving now! Hang on, this looks like it's going to be a bumpy ride… **

**_Opening Pandora's Box - Chapter 2 _**

**by Nemesi and Raptor Darkshadow **

It was a gray, rainy day outside and the sound of water drumming on the roof echoed in the silent, desert rooms. It fell in flashing silver sheets beyond the fogged glass, laying a layer of coldness over the city. But he felt something more then the coldness of his surrounding, an internal coldness gripping him tightly. 

Parked in front of the window, Daisuke stared out at the light, silvery rain that had kept him trapped home. He took in a deep breath, smelling snow on the air, feeling the cold run 

all the way down into his lungs. Tipping his favorite old cup, one he'd had ever since he was a kid, up to his lips, he sipped on his hot cocoa, eyes hooked on the frosting panorama outside. 

Suddenly, his eyes clouded, and with a closer look it was easy to guess why. They were placed, unseeing, on the blurred shape of the Zoo's cages, ethereal ghosts hidden behind the veil of falling droplets. With a sigh Daisuke placed his cup down thoughtlessly, not even paying heed on where he actually had set it. 

Inwardly, he was sighing, screaming, and rage boiled inside him, activating a chain reaction with his guilt that left him frowning. 

"Damn." He muttered, rubbing his palms along his arms in order to get rid of a coldness buried too deep inside him to disappear at the touch. 

Hikari, Takeru, Miyako, Iori, Yamato, Taichi… each and every digidestined… gone. Captured and brought away by the army. And not even one of the digimon had made it out the Zoo either, beside Veemon and Wormmon. And for how egoistic that could sound, Daisuke felt a bit relieved they were the ones to make it. 

Staring out in the livid sky with a sigh, the boy wondered if the two mysterious figures, the girl and the digimon that had found he and Ken in their hiding place in the thick, dark vegetation of the park, were right about them being safe. Or better =still= safe, like the blue dragon had stated quietly, glazing at the sky with distant gingery eyes. But they were there up to try and save them, the strawberry blonde girl had said with a small smile. 

Shivering, and cursing himself for not being able to do anything, Daisuke shot up to his feet, his blanket sliding noiselessly out his shoulders to pool on the ground. Slow, calibrate steps brought him to his bedroom, and once there he actually had to take a deep breath before pushing the door open. Couldn't that was only a dream? Yeah, that was it, a bad dream. Now he'd enter his room, go to bed despite being it early in the morning, and when he'd wake up, it would be because Takeru was phoning him, reminding him he had promised to go and see his basket game. 

And after he'd slammed the phone on his face, Miyako would call him, overexcited, warning him not to be late or he'd pay the consequences. And finally, grumbling, he'd get up, only to see Ken smile up at him from the little futon they used whenever he slept over. Right. That was reality. 

_//This is only a bad dream…//_ he thought, pushing the door open. 

…but dreams don't leave a girl in a clown outfit sneaking on chocolate poky on your bed, do them? 

"Agh! No, please leave that alone, it's Chibimon's personal box of chocolate!" Daisuke shrieked, palms held up defensively. 

"So?" The girl replied, plopping a chocolate in her mouth. "He'll yell at me once he wakes up, what's the matter?" she smiled, and Daisuke realized with a little frown that her face never -never- seemed to hold a different expression. Then it stuck him. The faint innuendo in her words. =When= he wakes up, she had said. That meant... he WAS about to wake up. 

Unable to help himself, Daisuke grinned, feeling cheerful all of a sudden. And the more she smiled at him, the more his lost confidence would pour inside him. 

"Yup." He said with a nod, still grinning madly. "And be ready 'cuz he's gonna put up a show you won't forget easily." Letting loose a crystalline chuckle, the girl rolled onto her back and swung her legs off Daisuke's bed, reaching down to a sleeping Veemon to run a finger across his stomach. 

"Oh, I'm ready to face every danger." She smiled, tickling the small digimon. Drooling, the bluish lizard tossed in his sleep, reaching down to scratch his belly, just were the girl was touching him. And when she moved away with a chuckle, he turned around, laying on his back with a snore, his tail waving for a moment before collapsing across his back. 

Happy that Veemon seemed alright, despite being asleep since the day before, Daisuke grabbed his computer chair and spun it around to straddle it, resting his chin on his folded arms. The girl absently plopped another chocolate in her mouth, making a delighted little smile. 

"You'd better enjoy them till you can." Daisuke grinned, and the girl cast a quizzical look a him, making his grin develop in a mischievous smirk. "I think they were stored for some important occasion." 

Silently, the girl placed her hands on the edge of the bed, just between her legs, and hold onto it tightly. Supporting her weight on her hands, she lowered her feet from the floor and then her legs from the mattress, always unhurriedly. Daisuke blinked as she swiftly turned completely upside down, and stood like that for few seconds, before spreading her legs. She slid off his bed, landing lightly on one tiptoe. Her other leg moved down, her knee bent, her back arched, and the girl let go of the bed, raising up without further delay, her foot tapping on the floor with a faint noise. 

"You're so sweet, Dai-chan." She smiled, rubbing her pointy shoe against the floor, and leaned slightly forward, clasping her hands behind her back. "Despite your digimon was trapped in the other world you still kept storing chocolate so that he'd find it if he came back!" 

Daisuke blushed, blinked, stuttered, stared and gasped at once, and the girl giggled. Spreading out her arms, she did a swift backflip and landed on one feet on the chair at the bedside, and carefully balanced herself on the small edge of its back. She began walking back and forth, a concentrated and yet cheerful expression on her face. 

"Dude!" Daisuke stuttered, finally past the initial surprise. "How do you do that?" Jumping back down on the floor, the girl twirled a finger in the light brown curls that escaped from under her hat, tipping her head to a side. The golden balls that adorned her outfit tinkled as they bumped against each other or against her body, creating a strangely musical noise. 

Holding out her arms, she posed for him, swinging left and right, as if to show him her deep crimson and white costume. 

"I'm an acrobat, Dai-chan, couldn't you tell?" Daisuke wondered briefly who exactly gave her the right to call him Dai-chan when they had meet only few hours before and hadn't even introduced themselves yet. The auburn haired boy opened his mouth, about to ask her more about herself, when she swirled around again, clasped her hands behind her back and paced toward his bed. 

One there she uncaringly flopped down on it, and smiled up at Daisuke sweetly, answering and yet not answering the questions still in the process of forming inside his mind. "I'm a clown, right? And a clown must me agile to play her tricks." 

"Tricks?" She nodded, winking at him. Daisuke leaned closer, and with a smirk she cocked her head to a side, faking a surprised expression. 

"Ohh! What is it behind your ear?" The amber skinned boy touched his ear uncertainly and found nothing, but when she put her own hand to his ear and then took it away, there was a chocolate for him to take. 

Daisuke stared at her for a second, an eyebrow raised uncertainly, and then took it slowly, uncertain. "Uh… thanks." She smiled at him, encouraging him. 

"Nothing!" She bouncing once when she jumped on the bed, stretching like a tired cat. 

Daisuke took his time to his time to study her. She was an unusual one, somewhat of an eye's delight to gawk at, but more of an odd and funny character. She seemed just a little older than him and as it was easy to tell from her agility and her incredibly bizarre outfit, she was a clown. Golden balls and bells adorned her costume and the weird thing was that they didn't tinkle whenever she moved… it seemed they did only when she thought they should. You know, as if to add effect to whatever she was doing. 

An oversized three-pointed had stood on her head, golden brown curls escaping it to tickle her cheeks and just as golden spikes falling over he forehead. Her heart shaped face was round and clean if not for the tattoos grazing her forehead and her left cheek. And sapphire eyes twinkled with mirth in the young face. 

_//A little like Ken's…//_ Daisuke thought. _//Okay, less deep, less bright, less sparkling, less hypnotizing, less stunningly filled with emotion, but still…// _

But what really caught his attention were her lips, stretched in an endless smile. 

"Are you always so cheerful?" He asked, the words leaving his mouth in a rush, without crossing his mind first. The girl cracked one eye open, gawking at him curiously. 

"Uh?" 

"I mean…" Daisuke moved up to his feet, turned the chair around and sat on it as it should be, slamming his hands on his knees. He gestured vaguely at her, then at himself and finally shrugged at loss of words. The girl rolled around, resting her chin in her palms. 

"What's the fun in bein' worried? If I worry and you worry and we all worry, we'd be all worried abut whatever worried us and 'bout each other too!" 

"Uhn?" Dazed, Daisuke regarded her with a confused look, refusing to admit there was a strange, twisted logic in that absurd statement. 

"Besides," She smiled, again, even if, thinking about it, had she ever stopped? "A clown that isn't cheerful, isn't a clown. Is my duty to cheer up people." 

"It is?" 

"Yup." The girl nodded fervently, the bells attached to her hat singing happily. "And you haven't been really bothered as before since you've entered this room, now have you?" 

"Kinda." He admitted with a nod, and she beamed at him, proud and happy. "But…" Daisuke shook his head, not understanding what she was hinting to. "How can you be not worried? The digimon are back in the real world after years, the army has both the chose digimon and the chose children and…" The boy frowned, deep in thought. "And you let your digimon go away like that?" 

"Hm?" The clown girl rose to a seated position, blinking. "You mean Aro-kun? Oh, why should I be worried 'bout him? He's one of the moooooooost powerful vaccine 'dramon 'round!" She said confidently, illustrating her point with her hands. "And he's a Mega too!" She added, enthusiast, her palms meeting with a clapping sound in front of her face. "So there's no need to worry, your Ken-chan's safe and sound with Arodramon!" 

"Arodramon you say?" Daisuke muttered, his brain accepting the new information. Mega. 'Dramon. Vaccine. Very powerful. Hopefully, on their side, or so it seemed. 

In front of him, the girl waited, watching a multitude of expression play over his honey brown features, until they settled in one of confusion. "My Ken-chan?" the only reply he got was a giggle, and a girl rolling on his bed, clutching her sides. 

"Whatcha mean?" Waving her hands dismissively, she laid down on her stomach, flipping through the pages of one of Daisuke's manga and plopping chocolate on her mouth with her other hand, occasionally reaching down to tickle Veemon's belly or to offer him a chocolate, a gesture he would accept gratefully even in his deep slumber. 

"Oi! Dun' ignore me!" 

"A'm not ignoring you, chere." She replied, still not looking up from her comic. "A'm only giving you privacy." 

"Pri--?" Daisuke reeled backward, confused. 

"To make your phone call, silly! You need peace and silence, don't you?" 

"Phone call?" 

"To hear how Ken's doin'." She replied, rolling her eyes good naturedly. 

"But I wasn't…" 

"Well, now you are." She waved him away, a fake pout on her face. "Go, go! Call him and then report the situation, it's clear you're dying to hear him!" And with a smirk she went back to her previous activities, giggling at the comic, the chocolate and Veemon's snoring sounds. 

Daisuke glared at her unbelievingly for a moment. Then he glared mock-angrily, and then surrendered to his worry, bolting for the phone. Unknown to him, sapphire eyes squinted at his dashing form, and for once, the smile on that face was mirthless. 

* * * * * 

Ken ran his fingertips down his digimon's side, feeling him shiver in response. The purple haired boy saw the caterpillar's face contort in a weak grimace, and wondering if it was out of pain, or perhaps he could sensing his closeness even when unconscious, Ken hold him close, guiding Wormmon's face to the hollow of his neck. 

For a moment, when he had first been able to hold Wormmon in the silent shadows of the night before, Ken had thought for an endless, terrible moment the digimon might be dead, before he detected a very faint rise and fall of his chest. And in that moment he felt like something had came over him, cold and burning at once. Like his whole body was being scratched by hundreds claws and he had fallen on his knees, emotionally worn out. 

"Something's troubling you I think, right?" Arodramon murmured in that quiet, low voice of his, and when Ken's tear-streaked face snapped up it was to align amethyst eyes to gingery ones. Ken found himself shivering, for those eyes were too deep to even began to describe them. They were serious and yet kind, and possessed a flame that left the former Emperor speechless. The digimon had pulled his sword free of its sheath, and was polishing it intently, a thoughtful look crossing his countenance. Ken studied him a little, following his azure fingers as they dealt and moved over the razor-edge of the opalescent blade without so much as a paper cut to show for it. 

Eyeing Ken curiously from where he sat in bed, actually watching his reflection on the rainbow-tinted metal of the blade, that shimmered like it was a soap bubble forged into steel, Arodramon drew back his lips in a smirk, waking Ken to the present. 

"…It's nothing, I'll handle it…" the boy murmured with a sniffle, wiping at his puffy red eyes. 

"Perhaps you may let your roommate know what is that would will handle." The dragon said, keen eyes scanning his surroundings. Again Ken shrugged, holding Wormmon even closer to his chest. "It's human you know?" Arodramon shrugged, slipping the sword into the scabbard that was strapped onto the back of his waist. "Those feelings you have for him, I mean." The blue dragon prompted, smiling a little. 

For a long moment, Ken just stared. Then, his cheeks colored and the boy ducked his head, letting his hair sliding forward to provide him shelter from the ginger gaze. 

"Oh… uh… ah… err… w-what feelings? I don't have feelings for Daisuke…" 

"Who said I was talking about him?" Ken's cheeks flamed, and he felt like he was about to turn on fire. Surprised he stuttered, and then dared to look up, watching as the digimon's bluish lips drew back in a smile that made him seem both kind and mischievous at the same time. 

"I… er… uh… you know no other digidestined, so… I thought…" 

"I do." He shrugged, folding his arms against his chest with nonchalance. 

"But… but I didn't know! And… and I've no feelings for Daisuke, thought!!" Arodramon chuckled briefly, raising an inquirer eyebrow at the flushed boy. 

"Oh? He's not your fried, then? Friendship *is* a feeling, you know?" A whimper was all the boy offered and he remained quiet, his hands paused over Wormmon's body, before slowly and deliberately getting up, sighing as he laid the sleeping digimon carefully on the chair he'd been hoisting and walked over the window. 

"I… I'm really grateful… for what Dai…" Ken licked his lips, debating over using or not Daisuke's full name or the nickname he alone was permitted to use. "Daisuke… did for me. He saved me from my darkness, and I… appreciate him a lot for that… I… uhm… I… care… for him, yes… he… uhm… is my… best…" Ken lowered his eyes to his hand, placed on the window pan. "Only… friend." A sound bounced out Arodramon's throat as he reclined back, deep in thought. 

The rain had stopped, decreasing to a gentle shower at first, and then disappearing, leaving the saturated ground a pause to rest. Ken looked out at the water pooled at water gathered around the edges of the panes of the window, and finally closed his eyes, trying to shut out the thought of his… friend? Was Daisuke really just that to him? …alone in that rain and cold. 

"I wonder… how he's." The boy stated quietly, and at this Arodramon smirked, crossing his arms behind his head and leaning against them. 

"Oh, Tsuki's surely pestering him to madness." He stated, confidently. "But I bet he's too worried about you to notice what she's really doing." 

"What--" Ken turned around, few questions on his lips, when the phone ringed, insistently. 

Amethyst eyes flickered to it and then back to the blue dragon, and found him smirking knowingly. He stretched and gestured to the source of the ringing, and the eyes followed the motion to the black phone before pulling it up and answer. 

"Moshi, moshi. Ichijouji residence." The purple eyes widened then, and searched the blue digimon again, filled with stupor. "D-D-Dai-chan…?" The digimon smiled, an amused expression on his face. "O-Of course… n-no he's still sleeping… no, I'm alright… you… you were worried about me…?!" Satisfied, Arodramon looked away, a bright I_told_you_so_didn't_I_ look on his face. Ken paid him almost no heed at all, his attention diverged on the smooth voice flowing out the mouthpiece that managed to even make him smile weakly. 

That until a squeaked "Ni-hao, Ken-chan!!!" and the following raw about whose was the telephone, who had it first, what was the right way to treat a Lady, where that above-mentioned Lady should be since Daisuke could see none, and who of the two duelists had the right to call Ken "Ken-chan" made him burst into helpless laughter. After an endless series of muttered curses, threats, squeaks and giggles later, a female voice greeted Ken cheerfully. Laughter still erupting from the purple haired boy's mouth, he covered it politely, holding the phone out for the Arodramon. 

"For you, I think." With a grin the digimon took the telephone from Ken's hand and looked at the boy giggling quietly as he returned to his chair, taking the still sleeping caterpillar in his arms. 

#Aro-kun!!# 

"Tsuki?" 

#The one and only!! News?# 

Arodramon shook his head. "No, I…" In that exact moment, Koushiro's laptop woke up to life, "bip"ing and thrilling madly. "…I think we just received the news we were expecting." 

#Cool!! What happened?# Arodramon reached down for the laptop, scanning intently the information flooding the screen. 

"It seems the child of Knowledge e-mailed our situation to a probable ally. And…" The dragon like digimon pressed few keys in a succession, quickly absorbing whatever information he was reading. "And he's up to meet the chosen children. Suppose he doesn't know about us or about the digidestined being captured, though. He offered Koushiro to meet him in a place called Okutama." 

"Okutama is a little town a hour from Tokio by train." Ken offered timidly, still caressing Wormmon's belly with tender care. Arodramon nodded and proceeded to update his partner on the other side of the line. She grinned, even thought he couldn't see her, and waved at Daisuke, winking at him. 

"Reunion time!" she cheered, and few minutes later both trios, Daisuke, the clown girl and a drooling/sleeping Veemon and Ken, Arodramon and a still drowsy Wormmon, had packed few goods and were heading to an abandoned building yard halfway through Odaiba and Tamachi. 

In Daisuke's house, the TV the boy had carelessly left on, was buzzing insistently, showing scenes of exaggerated agitation. 

_::…We're sorry to update the civilization with the list of casualties from the Monster attacks. Our prayers goes to the families of, _

_Hida Iori, _

_Ishida Yamato, _

_Inoue Miyako, _

_Izumi Koushiro, _

_Kamiya Taichi, _

_Kamiya Hikari, _

_Kido Jyou, _

_Tachikawa Mimi, _

_Takaishi Takeru, _

_Takenouchi Sora. _

_Also, we're asking the population to remain at home and don't wander in the streets, for the army is inspecting the city in search of two dangerous rebels, that from now on must be regarded as enemy of the whole Japan if not the World itself. We're sorry to inform you that the boy-genius Ichijouji Ken, and the promise of the junior soccer Motomiya Daisuke are currently wanted by the law forces. Whoever finds them is warmly asked to thinks about their safety first and evade them, and then inform the police immediately…:: _

* * * * * 

He didn't know how long that they had been sitting there. It could have been only a few hours, it might have been several. Not that it really mattered. He looked to his left, then to his right. He and the rest of the Digidestined were in a line, seated side by side in a row of twelve comfortably padded chairs. He had noticed however, that the two on the end were conspicuously empty. 

Taichi looked at the room they were seated in. It was large room, easily twenty-five meters on a side. The chairs they were sitting on were in the center of the room, so needless to say there was lots of empty space. On the wall to his right was the door they had come in through, the wall to the left and the wall behind them were featureless, and in front of them, the wall looked like it was divided into several metal doors. Even though he had done it several times since they had been brought in here, he forced himself to count them again. Twelve. Twelve chairs, twelve doors, twelve Digidestined. It didn't take a genious like Ken or Koushiro to figure out that those were probably the doors that led to the cells that they would be kept in as soon as whoever had captured them was finished questioning them. 

He looked down at his hands. The cuffs were gone-they had been removed shortly after they had been brought into the room, one by one, and they had been replaced by strange looking metal gloves. They went to the middle of their forearms, and were made of shiny metal that looked like stainless steel. When they had first put the gloves on his hands, he had thought that they were there to keep him from moving his hands, but he had been surprised to discover that they had so many joints that they were fully articulated, not hindering his movements at all. The soldiers that had shoved the gloves on his hands had then pushed his wrists together and pressed two buttons on each glove in succession. The first had activated something that Koushiro had tentatively identified as what he thought was an electro-magnet of some kind. The second had caused a small green light on each glove to turn on, but other than that, not even Koushiro was willing to hazard a guess as to what it meant. 

He tried for about the tenth time to pull his wrists apart-if he could get free, he was sure that he could find Agumon and get everyone out safely. But for the tenth time, he just strained and strained, grunting with exertion as he grit his teeth and nothing happened. 

He was sure that they didn't have much time before whoever it was that had captured them was finished questioning them and threw them into their cells. But so far they had only been asked one question. 

The tall man with the hungry shark smile sat in front of them, looking quite comfortable on a folding chair that he had carried in himself. He was smiling now, as he had been since they had come in, and it didn't look like he would be stopping any time soon. 

"I know that you know where the other two are," the tall man stated, "And it's only a matter of time before we figure out who and where they are, but it would be so much easier for all of us if you just told me now." 

He was answered with silence as they just stared at him. He looked back, "Anyone?" 

More silence, "Well," he chuckled, we can come back to that later then." 

Taichi broke the silence, "Will you shut up already?" 

The man just smiled, "I'm sorry?" 

"We've been here for hours, and all you've said is, 'Where are your friends? Where are your friends? Where are your friends?' I'm getting sick of this!" 

"Is there something else that you'd like to talk about?" he asked. 

"I have an idea," Yamato stated, scowling at the man, "How about we talk about you letting us go, because we have families and friends that will miss us and cause a major incident when we don't come home?" 

"Oh," the man crossed his legs, "You mean how they're going to call the police, and the media, and have everyone looking for you because you're missing?" 

"Exactly," Yamato said, still scowling even though his voice was conversational, almost casual. 

"And how I should just let you go now so that I can avoid a lot of trouble when everyone finds out where you are and that I kidnapped you?" 

"Now you're getting it," Yamato stated. 

The man gave a dramatic sigh as he uncrossed his legs, setting his hands on his knees, "Well, you see, that's not something that we have to worry about." 

Miyako blinked, "What do you mean? I know that at least my parents are going to look for me!" 

In response, the man just motioned for a few of the roughly three or four dozen soldiers that were in the room-standing behind the chairs so that if any of the Digidestined try to stand they could grab their shoulders and shove them back down (which they had a few times). Two soldiers came into view, pushing a large screen TV on a rolling stand before them. One plugged the monstrous screen into the wall as the other handed an unmarked video cassette to the man. He took it and shoved it into the slot below the screen, nodding to the soldiers after he had turned it on. Without a word, the soldiers retreated back out of sight. 

The man sighed dramatically, "I'm sorry to say that no one is going to come looking for you," he stated, "There will be no calls to the police, the media won't be showing any reports about missing children." 

He pressed play, and the Digidestined watched the screen in silence, none of them believing a word he had said. 

It looked like a news report, showing average news, nothing spectacular, until the anchorman accepted a sheet of paper from someone off camera. He scanned the page for a second, then looked back up at the camera with a haggard look, "This just in," he began. 

The Digidestined watched with a growing sense of unreality as the anchorman reported that they had all been killed in the monster attack, saying that their prayers went out to their families, and he seemed to say that the families of the deceased would need all their prayers and support in the days to come without saying it out loud. Each sat up straighter when their name was called, as if an electric surge had just ran up their spine. 

After the short report, the anchorman shuffled the papers in front of him around for a second, then quietly handed the show over to another anchorman for the latest in sports. The man pressed a button on the front of the TV, and the picture disappeared, reduced to a shining dot in the center of the screen that slowly faded out. 

He sighed again, "I'm afraid that you're dead." 

They stared at him in silence for a few minutes. 

Sora was the one that finally broke the silence, "Who are you?" 

The man smiled at her, taking his seat again as two soldiers came up and removed the TV-they didn't know and didn't care if it was the same two, this whole thing had suddenly taken on the quality of a dream. He sat in silence for a minute, then straightened his jacket, "My name is Katsuhiro, and I have something of a business proposition for you." 

"What do you want from us?" Hikari asked. 

Katsuhiro smiled, "Now that's more like it," he stood and turned so they were looking at his back. 

"How much do you know about our history?" he asked, "How much do you know about our military?" he looked over his shoulder at them, "How much?" 

The Digidestined blinked at him, and exchanged looks, wondering where this was headed now that he was no longer asking where their friends were. 

He turned and looked away with a sigh, "I didn't think that you would know much," he whispered, "So let me fill you in on the details. We have always been a proud people, strong, independent, honorable. This was also true of our military. Strong proud men, every one of them," he sighed, "Until World War II." 

He turned to look at them, "After we surrendered, the Americans came and helped us write a constitution. A constitution that they dictated, that they wanted, that they controlled. A constitution that limited the military to a mere fraction of its former size," he frowned, "Compared to most of the armies in the world, ours is nothing, not enough to stand up to anyone. That was how the Americans wanted it. They wanted their former enemy weak so that it could never threaten them again. They did learn from the mistakes they had made with Germany after World War I though, so the stipulations that they placed in the constitution weren't enough to incite us to arms a second time. 

"Let's talk arms. We have no nuclear missiles, because our constitution stipulates that we can never build, buy, sell, or possess nuclear arms. Submarines; sure, we have some deisels out there, but we don't have any nuclear submarines because of the constitution, and we certainly don't have any Boomers-otherwise known as Ballistic Missile Submarines, you know, the kind that can launch missiles-nuclear missiles, because of the constitution. 

"Even now, even when they have limited our army, our airforce, our navy, they still come to us for their electronics. When they need a new video game, or a new TV, or a new CD player, or a new DVD player, who do they turn to? Japan. They get electronics from us because we can build it faster, cheaper, and better than they can. 

"And because of the constitution, they have always had what we have not." 

The Digidestined stared at him and looked at each other, wondering what the constitution and this view of history had to do with them. 

Katsuiro paused after his impassioned speech and smiled, "Well, now we have something that the Americans don't! Now we have the ability to rebuild our military to its former glory, rebuild so that its something to be proud of once again! We are now the only nation with the ability to build the strongest army on the face of the planet, because we are the only nation that has Digimon!" 

There it was. That was why he wanted them. That was why he had gone to such trouble to find them and capture them, and why he wanted to find Ken, Daisuke, Wormmon, and Veemon so badly. He wanted all of them. And they had all played right into his hands. 

"All right," Taichi said, "Now that we know the history, and we know that we're the only country with Digimon, what do you want with us?" 

Katsuhiro smiled his hungry shark smile at the boy, "That's the business proposition that I was talking about earlier. You see, just having these Digimon and the children that are bonded with them isn't enough." 

"What more do you need?" Yamato glared. 

Katsuhiro met the icy stare with his warm smile, "I need your help. You see, with your help we can bring more Digimon into this world-don't tell me it's impossible, we have extensive documents on the two times it has happened already. With your help, you, your Digimon, and the Digimon that you can bring into this world, we have the potential to build an army of Digimon equal to any army the world has ever known. With you leading them, the Digimon could do anything," he extended his hands, "With you as my generals, leading legions of Digimon, we could rebuild our army to the glory of days that have been forgotten by most!" 

"I thought you said that the constitution limited the military," Jyou said. 

Katsuhiro raised an eyebrow at the blue haired teen, "It does, but the constitution doesn't say anything about Digimon and Digidestined!" 

Realization swept through the collected Digidestined. He wanted them to lead his new army. That was why they had been captured, brought here, and questioned. That was why he wanted them and their Digimon. 

Katsuhiro clasped his hands behind his back, "So, what do you say? Do we have a deal?" 

"So, you want us to bring Digimon into this world from the Digital World, and make them into an army?" Taichi asked. 

Katsuhiro nodded, "That's right." 

Yamato shook his head, "Are you out of your fucking mind?" 

"No," Taichi stated, "We won't do it." 

Katsuhiro looked at then, meeting their defiance, looking them each in the eye, "None of you? Not one? And why not?" 

"Because we refuse to do that to our Digimon or any Digimon!" Miyako spat, trying to make him see what was so clear to her, "It's not right!" 

"And there's nothing that you can do to make us do it, you can't convince us to go along with this" Yamato growled. 

Katsuhiro looked at them again, "So you're sure about this," no one responded. He looked at Yamato, "You said that there was no way for me to convince you to go along with this plan, I'm sorry to say that again, you are wrong. Very wrong." 

Katsuhiro nodded to a soldier near the wall, next to a wall console. The soldier nodded back and turned to the console, entering a command and pressing the enter key. 

The metal doors before the Digidestined started to slide upward with the sound of muffled machinery. 

_This is it,_ Taichi thought, _Now we're thrown into the cells to think this over. But we're not going to give in just because we're in cells. We're stronger than that! _

Katsuhiro watched the doors start to rise, then turned to regard the Digidestined, watching their reactions. 

The doors retracted into the ceiling, revealing the rooms beyond, rooms that held the Digimon. Each of the chosen children was faced with the sight on their Digimon, lying on the floor, still muzzled or otherwise restrained. They were obviously awake, as their eyes were open, but they barely seemed to have the strength to move their heads to regard the wall that had disappeared, and their friends on the other side of the thick bullet-proof glass. 

Takeru looked away from the sight of Patamon, lying in the center of the small room, ears spread on the floor around him, the thick metal band still encircling his body, "Oh, God..." 

"A pathetic sight, isn't it?" Katsuhiro asked, "The rooms you see are saturated with an electrical field that we have found robs Digimon of their strength. They're so weak they can barely move," he regarded the children with a pitying glance, "You know you can end this. They'll be as happy and energetic as before. But it's up to you. All you have to do is agree to my terms." 

Yamato growled as he looked at Gabumon, a thick leather muzzle holding his mouth shut, his hands cuffed together in front of him. He tried to stand, to attack Katsuhiro, but his shoulders were grabbed from behind and he was shoved roughly into his seat. He looked at Gabumon as the shoulders held him in his chair. All it would take was a word and they would release him. All it would take was one word and he would be free again-free in the military, but at least he wouldn't be like this anymore... 

His eyes widened as he saw Gabumon shake his head. As if he could read his thoughts, the Digimon was telling him not to do this. He closed his eyes and forced down a sob, then glared at Katsuhiro with all the venom, and more, of his previous looks, "Never!" 

"Not one of you is willing to help your Digimon?" 

"They wouldn't want us to do this, not even for them," Iori stated, not looking at Armadillomon, "The answer is still no." 

Katsuhiro sighed as he turned his back on the Digidestined, "Looks like you need further persuasion," he looked at the soldiers in the room and nodded to them, "Take them away, Throw them into their cells." 

The soldiers that they could see nodded, and they were roughly grabbed from behind and lifted to their feet, and led out of the room. Led is the wrong word, as they almost all had to be carried out, fighting as they were to stay within sight of their Digimon for as long as possible. 

------End of chapter 02 


End file.
